NON-DUALITY
The Fourth
Cannot call it a state, realm or body because it is the state behind all states, the realm behind all realms, and the body behind all bodies. It is the True Self, or Atman (Sat-Chit-Ananda).
4) NonDual or Turiyatita (State behind all states or One State/One Taste - Can appear as two separate brainwaves or none at all): - The Nondual state of awareness (not really awareness or a state but words are limited for this One State or Nondual cognition. Authentic nondual teachers describe this state in many ways, all pointing to that it is always the same, and the state behind all the other states. That is, in waking, dreaming, and deep sleep there is a state that cognizes all these states as both real and unreal manifestations of One State. In the image above, the white page it is illustrated on is the witness (Causal), while the Nondual realization is termed Svabhavikakaya or integrated body of Truth, and is not a body, but an unspeakable mystery that is your True Self. It is both the page and the ink of the book of life, as seen as one and the same.
Cannot call it a state, realm or body because it is the state behind all states, the realm behind all realms, and the body behind all bodies. It is the True Self, or Atman (Sat-Chit-Ananda).
4) NonDual or Turiyatita (State behind all states or One State/One Taste - Can appear as two separate brainwaves or none at all): - The Nondual state of awareness (not really awareness or a state but words are limited for this One State or Nondual cognition. Authentic nondual teachers describe this state in many ways, all pointing to that it is always the same, and the state behind all the other states. That is, in waking, dreaming, and deep sleep there is a state that cognizes all these states as both real and unreal manifestations of One State. In the image above, the white page it is illustrated on is the witness (Causal), while the Nondual realization is termed Svabhavikakaya or integrated body of Truth, and is not a body, but an unspeakable mystery that is your True Self. It is both the page and the ink of the book of life, as seen as one and the same.
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/published/227262e1d4a32abc72f57e71e321119d-buddha-life-buddha-zen.jpg?1642372300)
Quoting the Buddha from Uposattha Sutta
bhikkhave, mahāsamuddo ekaraso loṇaraso. Evameva kho bhikkhave, ayaṃ dhammavinayo ekaraso vimuttirasa. “
“Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching has one taste, the taste of freedom (or liberation). “
Here taste is translated from Rasa...
Buddhist definitions for rasa: taste; juice; flavor. Derived from the Sanskrit concepts of ancient theatre and literature, it refers to the over all emotional tone of a piece. The artistic goal was to invoke a mindset which resulted in an emotional response called a rasa.
Whether one samples water taken from the surface of the ocean, or from its middling region, or from its depths, the taste of the water is in every case the same — the taste of salt. And again, whether one drinks but a thimble-full of ocean water, or a glass-full, or a bucket-full, the same salty taste is present throughout. Analogously with the Buddha's Teaching, a single flavor — the flavor of freedom (vimuttirasa)
Anandamayi Ma again referring to this Nondual One Taste:
"Whether this body talks to you or laughs or lies down or whether it sinks to the ground and rolls about, as sometimes happened during kirtana, no matter how many different states and conditions this body may appear to be in, it nevertheless remains always in the one state. Indeed everything arises out of one state (bhava)."
Bhava = Divine Mood = Not a Feeling per se, but the Feeling of Being itself (the feeling behind all feelings).
bhikkhave, mahāsamuddo ekaraso loṇaraso. Evameva kho bhikkhave, ayaṃ dhammavinayo ekaraso vimuttirasa. “
“Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching has one taste, the taste of freedom (or liberation). “
Here taste is translated from Rasa...
Buddhist definitions for rasa: taste; juice; flavor. Derived from the Sanskrit concepts of ancient theatre and literature, it refers to the over all emotional tone of a piece. The artistic goal was to invoke a mindset which resulted in an emotional response called a rasa.
Whether one samples water taken from the surface of the ocean, or from its middling region, or from its depths, the taste of the water is in every case the same — the taste of salt. And again, whether one drinks but a thimble-full of ocean water, or a glass-full, or a bucket-full, the same salty taste is present throughout. Analogously with the Buddha's Teaching, a single flavor — the flavor of freedom (vimuttirasa)
Anandamayi Ma again referring to this Nondual One Taste:
"Whether this body talks to you or laughs or lies down or whether it sinks to the ground and rolls about, as sometimes happened during kirtana, no matter how many different states and conditions this body may appear to be in, it nevertheless remains always in the one state. Indeed everything arises out of one state (bhava)."
Bhava = Divine Mood = Not a Feeling per se, but the Feeling of Being itself (the feeling behind all feelings).
One taste is the single quality of all experiences great and small and all states low and high, and it is that which is beyond all experience and all states. It is unmistakably so. And THAT is your True Identity. And then you will take that Constant, non dual, choiceless awareness and effortlessly re-enter the lesser states, and reanimate them with radiance.
We are finally transitioning from Understanding Nonduality and Nondual Philosophies to TASTING or EXPERIENCING NONDUALITY. The word 'One Taste' points to a mystery that cannot be put into words where both experiencer and that which is experienced is One! One Taste does not imply a taster, and something tasted, rather a nondual arising of everything and nothing each moment-less moment. Look around you right now, that is IT, there is Just This, Forever Just This!
We are finally transitioning from Understanding Nonduality and Nondual Philosophies to TASTING or EXPERIENCING NONDUALITY. The word 'One Taste' points to a mystery that cannot be put into words where both experiencer and that which is experienced is One! One Taste does not imply a taster, and something tasted, rather a nondual arising of everything and nothing each moment-less moment. Look around you right now, that is IT, there is Just This, Forever Just This!
One Taste is not something you can 'bring about' or cause - it is always already fully present, it is not the result of actions or efforts in space and time, and you have actually never lost it.
The most you can do by way of temporal effort is avoid the two common mistakes on the way to One Taste:
1) People try to make the witnessing awareness an object, trying to make it an OBJECT that can be grasped, whereas it is simply the Seer of all objects that arise, and it is "felt " only as a great background sense of freedom and release from all objects.
Once you are able to be in a Witnessing state of awareness, impartially witnessing all that arises. You will notice that the separate self or ego simply arises in consciousness like everything else. You can actually feel the self contraction, just like you can feel your hands and feet, a person, table or chair, etc. The self contraction is a feeling of interior tension often localized behind the eyes, and anchored in a slight muscle tension throughout the body.
NOTICE - Simply notice this tension.
Moving from Witness to Nonduality
2) Second mistake is trying to get rid of the ego or self contraction (instead of noticing it).
Once people have become comfortable resting as the Empty Witness, and once they notice the tension that is self contraction, they imagine that to finally move from the Witness to One Taste, they have to get rid of the self contraction. (or get rid of the ego). But that actually locks the self contraction more firmly into place. (same goes with stored traumas).
We assume that self contraction hides or obstructs Spirit, whereas in fact it is simply a radiant manifestation of Spirit itself, like absolutely every other form in the Universe. All forms are nothing but emptiness including the form of the ego. Spirit loves everything that arises just as it is! The Witness loves everything that arises, just as it is. The Witness loves the ego because the Witness is the impartial mirror mind that equally reflects and perfectly embraces everything that arises.
But the ego decides to play the game of getting rid of itself - simply because as long as it is playing the game, it obviously continues to exist (who else is playing the game?).
"Is not the desire to get rid of the Ego itself a manifestation of the ego?" ~Chuang Tzo
The Ego is not a thing but a subtle effort, and you cannot use effort to get rid of effort - you end up with two efforts instead of one. The ego is itself a perfect manifestation of the divine.
The Practice (or capping exercise):
When you rest in the empty Witness, simply notice the self contraction. Rest in the Witness and feel the self contraction. When you feel the self contraction you are already free of it - you are already looking at it instead of identifying with it. You are looking at it from the position of the Witness, which is always already free of all objects in any case.
You are not trying to get rid of self contraction, but simply witnessing and feeling it - and while you are there resting as the Great Witness or Emptiness that you are - One Taste or Nonduality might more easily flash forth.
As the Witness, you are free of self contraction. Rest in the Freedom, Openness and Emptiness. From that space of Freedom at some unbidden point, you may notice the feeling of Freedom has no inside and no outside, no center and no surround, no here and no there, no subject and no object, without beginning and without end, without a path, meaningless and purposeless, and without a goal. Thoughts are floating in this freedom, the world is arising in this Freedom and you are THAT, infinite fullness!
THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO BRING ABOUT OR CAUSE ONE TASTE - IT is always already fully present, it is not the result of some temporal action, practice or technique, because it has never been lost.
Thus us what might be called a capping exercise. Do it, not instead of, but in addition to, whatever other practice you are doing - prayer, yoga, vipassana, zazen, japa, meditation, inquiry, etc. All of these practices train you to enter a specific state of consciousness, but One Taste is NOT a specific state - but actually is the basis and foundation of any and all states, so as the wetness is fully present in each and every wave of the ocean. One wave may be bigger than another wave, but IT IS NOT WETTER! All waves are equally wet, just as all states, practices and experiences are equally the One Taste of Nonduality!
All specific practices are designed to get you to a particular wave, usually a Really Big Wave, and that is fine! But One Taste is the wetness of even the smallest wave, so any wave of awareness you have right now is just fine. Rest with that wave, feel and witness the self contraction, and stand Free!!
These spiritual practices, precisely because they introduce you to subtler and subtler experiences, will inadvertently help you to tire of all experience. When you tire of wave jumping, you will stand open to the wetness or Suchness of whatever wave you are on. The Pure Witness itself is not an experience, but an opening or clearing in which all experiences come and go, and as long as you are chasing experiences, including spiritual experiences, you will never rest as the Witness, let alone fall into the ever present ocean of One Taste. By tiring of experiences, you will rest as the Witness, and it is as the Witness that you can notice Wetness (One Taste).
Then the Kosmos will rush into your soul, you will arise as countless galaxies and swirl for all eternity. There is only self-existing fullness left in the world, there is only self-seen Radiance here in Emptiness - etched on the wall of infinity, preserved for all eternity, the one and only truth:
There is Just This, snap your fingers, nothing more.
The most you can do by way of temporal effort is avoid the two common mistakes on the way to One Taste:
1) People try to make the witnessing awareness an object, trying to make it an OBJECT that can be grasped, whereas it is simply the Seer of all objects that arise, and it is "felt " only as a great background sense of freedom and release from all objects.
Once you are able to be in a Witnessing state of awareness, impartially witnessing all that arises. You will notice that the separate self or ego simply arises in consciousness like everything else. You can actually feel the self contraction, just like you can feel your hands and feet, a person, table or chair, etc. The self contraction is a feeling of interior tension often localized behind the eyes, and anchored in a slight muscle tension throughout the body.
NOTICE - Simply notice this tension.
Moving from Witness to Nonduality
2) Second mistake is trying to get rid of the ego or self contraction (instead of noticing it).
Once people have become comfortable resting as the Empty Witness, and once they notice the tension that is self contraction, they imagine that to finally move from the Witness to One Taste, they have to get rid of the self contraction. (or get rid of the ego). But that actually locks the self contraction more firmly into place. (same goes with stored traumas).
We assume that self contraction hides or obstructs Spirit, whereas in fact it is simply a radiant manifestation of Spirit itself, like absolutely every other form in the Universe. All forms are nothing but emptiness including the form of the ego. Spirit loves everything that arises just as it is! The Witness loves everything that arises, just as it is. The Witness loves the ego because the Witness is the impartial mirror mind that equally reflects and perfectly embraces everything that arises.
But the ego decides to play the game of getting rid of itself - simply because as long as it is playing the game, it obviously continues to exist (who else is playing the game?).
"Is not the desire to get rid of the Ego itself a manifestation of the ego?" ~Chuang Tzo
The Ego is not a thing but a subtle effort, and you cannot use effort to get rid of effort - you end up with two efforts instead of one. The ego is itself a perfect manifestation of the divine.
The Practice (or capping exercise):
When you rest in the empty Witness, simply notice the self contraction. Rest in the Witness and feel the self contraction. When you feel the self contraction you are already free of it - you are already looking at it instead of identifying with it. You are looking at it from the position of the Witness, which is always already free of all objects in any case.
You are not trying to get rid of self contraction, but simply witnessing and feeling it - and while you are there resting as the Great Witness or Emptiness that you are - One Taste or Nonduality might more easily flash forth.
As the Witness, you are free of self contraction. Rest in the Freedom, Openness and Emptiness. From that space of Freedom at some unbidden point, you may notice the feeling of Freedom has no inside and no outside, no center and no surround, no here and no there, no subject and no object, without beginning and without end, without a path, meaningless and purposeless, and without a goal. Thoughts are floating in this freedom, the world is arising in this Freedom and you are THAT, infinite fullness!
THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO BRING ABOUT OR CAUSE ONE TASTE - IT is always already fully present, it is not the result of some temporal action, practice or technique, because it has never been lost.
Thus us what might be called a capping exercise. Do it, not instead of, but in addition to, whatever other practice you are doing - prayer, yoga, vipassana, zazen, japa, meditation, inquiry, etc. All of these practices train you to enter a specific state of consciousness, but One Taste is NOT a specific state - but actually is the basis and foundation of any and all states, so as the wetness is fully present in each and every wave of the ocean. One wave may be bigger than another wave, but IT IS NOT WETTER! All waves are equally wet, just as all states, practices and experiences are equally the One Taste of Nonduality!
All specific practices are designed to get you to a particular wave, usually a Really Big Wave, and that is fine! But One Taste is the wetness of even the smallest wave, so any wave of awareness you have right now is just fine. Rest with that wave, feel and witness the self contraction, and stand Free!!
These spiritual practices, precisely because they introduce you to subtler and subtler experiences, will inadvertently help you to tire of all experience. When you tire of wave jumping, you will stand open to the wetness or Suchness of whatever wave you are on. The Pure Witness itself is not an experience, but an opening or clearing in which all experiences come and go, and as long as you are chasing experiences, including spiritual experiences, you will never rest as the Witness, let alone fall into the ever present ocean of One Taste. By tiring of experiences, you will rest as the Witness, and it is as the Witness that you can notice Wetness (One Taste).
Then the Kosmos will rush into your soul, you will arise as countless galaxies and swirl for all eternity. There is only self-existing fullness left in the world, there is only self-seen Radiance here in Emptiness - etched on the wall of infinity, preserved for all eternity, the one and only truth:
There is Just This, snap your fingers, nothing more.
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/download-1_orig.jpg)
**A common metaphor is it is like the ocean and its waves.**
Waves are produced by the ocean, but the ocean and its waves are ultimately Not- two.
There is something they both share. There is a common thusness or suchness.
And that is wetness.
One wave might be larger than another wave, but it is not wetter than another wave.
All of the waves are equally wet. If you discover wetness at the wave you are on, you've discovered it everywhere! You have woken up, you have awakened.
You have become enlightened about the ever present wetness of the ocean and everything in it. You have simply discovered the thusness, the suchness, the isles of all reality.
Which means your own immediate awareness, right here and right now, is itself directly one with, its totally saturated with, this ultimate ground of all being which is non-dual. You do not have to seek this witness or practice to be wet or jump from one wave to another. Any place you are at, you're wet.
But as a common saying has it, "A fish doesn't know it's wet". Because it's constant in that wetness, so it never experiences anything but that.
To really become aware that it is wet, the fish has to have a genuine waking up to that.
It actually has to become enlightened about its ever present condition. Its always already thusness or wetness, the fact that it is drenched with this all encompassing ground of being.
Waves are produced by the ocean, but the ocean and its waves are ultimately Not- two.
There is something they both share. There is a common thusness or suchness.
And that is wetness.
One wave might be larger than another wave, but it is not wetter than another wave.
All of the waves are equally wet. If you discover wetness at the wave you are on, you've discovered it everywhere! You have woken up, you have awakened.
You have become enlightened about the ever present wetness of the ocean and everything in it. You have simply discovered the thusness, the suchness, the isles of all reality.
Which means your own immediate awareness, right here and right now, is itself directly one with, its totally saturated with, this ultimate ground of all being which is non-dual. You do not have to seek this witness or practice to be wet or jump from one wave to another. Any place you are at, you're wet.
But as a common saying has it, "A fish doesn't know it's wet". Because it's constant in that wetness, so it never experiences anything but that.
To really become aware that it is wet, the fish has to have a genuine waking up to that.
It actually has to become enlightened about its ever present condition. Its always already thusness or wetness, the fact that it is drenched with this all encompassing ground of being.
The rational mind cannot comprehend this state but nondual mystics proclaim that a deeper intuitive faculty called prajna can directly see this mysterious truth.
Ponder this quote from the great Mother Avatar, Anandamayi Ma:
“Father, there is little to tell.” She spread her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. “My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came on this earth, Father, ‘I was the same.’ As a little girl, ‘I was the same.’ I grew into womanhood, but still ‘I was the same.’ When the family in which I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, ‘I was the same… And, Father, in front of you now, ‘I am the same.’ Ever afterward, though the dance of creation change[s] around me in the hall of eternity, ‘I shall be the same.’”
-Paramahansa Yogananda quoting Anandamayi Ma, Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 45
This sameness referred to by Anandamayi Ma, is a Sameness behind and underlying all experiences which based on the inherent emptiness (shunya) of all forms. As the heart Sutra says, "form is emptiness" and "emptiness is form". But it is not nothing, it is both nothing and everything. It is that which you see before you right now, including the Seer which is Just This, always Only This Arising!
Poetically Buddhists refer to this One State as One Taste, which funny enough State and Taste are anagrams of each other.
Ponder this quote from the great Mother Avatar, Anandamayi Ma:
“Father, there is little to tell.” She spread her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. “My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came on this earth, Father, ‘I was the same.’ As a little girl, ‘I was the same.’ I grew into womanhood, but still ‘I was the same.’ When the family in which I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, ‘I was the same… And, Father, in front of you now, ‘I am the same.’ Ever afterward, though the dance of creation change[s] around me in the hall of eternity, ‘I shall be the same.’”
-Paramahansa Yogananda quoting Anandamayi Ma, Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 45
This sameness referred to by Anandamayi Ma, is a Sameness behind and underlying all experiences which based on the inherent emptiness (shunya) of all forms. As the heart Sutra says, "form is emptiness" and "emptiness is form". But it is not nothing, it is both nothing and everything. It is that which you see before you right now, including the Seer which is Just This, always Only This Arising!
Poetically Buddhists refer to this One State as One Taste, which funny enough State and Taste are anagrams of each other.
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/river_orig.jpg)
Selling Water By the River
A Zen Master said, "For forty years I sold water by the river."
For forty years I’ve been selling water
By the bank of a river.
Ho, ho!
My labors have been wholly without merit.
Forty years of selling water by the river, and about fifty years before that gathering water in a wicker basket. Ho, ho!
A Zen Master said, "For forty years I sold water by the river."
For forty years I’ve been selling water
By the bank of a river.
Ho, ho!
My labors have been wholly without merit.
Forty years of selling water by the river, and about fifty years before that gathering water in a wicker basket. Ho, ho!
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/published/2022-01-31-15-09-02.png?1643659855)
Explaining Water to a Fish
How can you possibly describe or use language to describe this Always Already Emptiness of One Taste? What words could a fish use to refer to water? How could you point out water to a fish? Drenched in it, never apart from it, upheld by it - what are we to do? Splash water in its face? What if its Original Face is water?
Flopping around in this linguistic dilemma, Mahayana and Vajrayana often uses equations that are similar to Zen koans in their paradoxical nature. Equations such as Big Mind = no-mind, True Self = no-self, Original Face = no face. But it is quickly added that Self and no-self (or permanent and impermanent), are mere words or signifiers.
And thus in order for either of them to be true, one has to recognize this pure Emptiness, the pure opening or clearing, in which all words, all things, all processes, spontaneously arise and fall. Emptiness or True Self or "no-self" or "no mind" are all finally, signifiers whose referent discloses itself only upon following the injunctions of true teachers whether they are meditation practices, or simply pointing out instructions, etc. These practices or paradigms result in the direct recognition of always already pure Emptiness, the recognition of one's "True Nature", which is, metaphorically, the all pervading water which is the universe of One Taste. The Zen masters don't want you to explain Emptiness or nonduality to them; they want you to directly show them Emptiness, which might be as simple as hearing a bell ring, or snapping your fingers. Just This!
How can you possibly describe or use language to describe this Always Already Emptiness of One Taste? What words could a fish use to refer to water? How could you point out water to a fish? Drenched in it, never apart from it, upheld by it - what are we to do? Splash water in its face? What if its Original Face is water?
Flopping around in this linguistic dilemma, Mahayana and Vajrayana often uses equations that are similar to Zen koans in their paradoxical nature. Equations such as Big Mind = no-mind, True Self = no-self, Original Face = no face. But it is quickly added that Self and no-self (or permanent and impermanent), are mere words or signifiers.
And thus in order for either of them to be true, one has to recognize this pure Emptiness, the pure opening or clearing, in which all words, all things, all processes, spontaneously arise and fall. Emptiness or True Self or "no-self" or "no mind" are all finally, signifiers whose referent discloses itself only upon following the injunctions of true teachers whether they are meditation practices, or simply pointing out instructions, etc. These practices or paradigms result in the direct recognition of always already pure Emptiness, the recognition of one's "True Nature", which is, metaphorically, the all pervading water which is the universe of One Taste. The Zen masters don't want you to explain Emptiness or nonduality to them; they want you to directly show them Emptiness, which might be as simple as hearing a bell ring, or snapping your fingers. Just This!
QUESTIONS
Self or No Self/No One?
Vedanta and Many Nondual Teachers to this day, Emphasizes the Self or Witness (which Ramana calls the I-I). You can also call this Universal Consciousness or Primoridal Awareness. A couple modern teachers would Include Ramana Maharshi, Jean Klein, Rupert Sheldrake, Francis Lucille and others.
The Buddhists (which the exception of Yogachara or Consciousness Only Mahayana Buddhism) emphasize No Self and No I and there is No one, as some modern nondual teachers do as well most notably Tony Parsons and Jim Newman.
BUT, Both are pointing to pure, nondual, unqualifiable Emptiness - Shunyata or Nirguna - which is the simple Suchness, Isness or Thusness of the entire world, and it is not other than the pure, natural, spontaneous, everpresent consciousness that is your own true state right now.
In its pure form Awareness, Consciousness or the Witness is NOT DUALITY, as some nondual teachers mistakenly say, reverting to dictionary definitions that cannot and do not apply here. In its pure form the Witness dissolves into everything it witnesses - the mirror mind is one with its objects, Emptiness is one with Form. As so, both Vedanta and Buddhism emphasize, pure consciousness itself is nondual, empty, and finally unqualifiable.
And that is the problem, the ultimate mystery cannot be spoken, and no words can accurately definite It, words are at best pointers and these Self or No Self approaches ultimately POINT to the same Nondual One Taste. Whether it is being the Self of the Universe, or Shrink down to nothing, in either case, what is left is Oneness. It is known in Logic that Everything and Nothing are actually the same, For in nothing all possibilities are present and in Everything nothing but all possibilities are present.
I have listened to MANY nondual teachers and all the True Nondual teachers all agree that there is no SEPARATE Self, that is the illusion. Whether you call that realization No Self or Nothing but the Self, in either case there is only Oneness.
Self or No Self/No One?
Vedanta and Many Nondual Teachers to this day, Emphasizes the Self or Witness (which Ramana calls the I-I). You can also call this Universal Consciousness or Primoridal Awareness. A couple modern teachers would Include Ramana Maharshi, Jean Klein, Rupert Sheldrake, Francis Lucille and others.
The Buddhists (which the exception of Yogachara or Consciousness Only Mahayana Buddhism) emphasize No Self and No I and there is No one, as some modern nondual teachers do as well most notably Tony Parsons and Jim Newman.
BUT, Both are pointing to pure, nondual, unqualifiable Emptiness - Shunyata or Nirguna - which is the simple Suchness, Isness or Thusness of the entire world, and it is not other than the pure, natural, spontaneous, everpresent consciousness that is your own true state right now.
In its pure form Awareness, Consciousness or the Witness is NOT DUALITY, as some nondual teachers mistakenly say, reverting to dictionary definitions that cannot and do not apply here. In its pure form the Witness dissolves into everything it witnesses - the mirror mind is one with its objects, Emptiness is one with Form. As so, both Vedanta and Buddhism emphasize, pure consciousness itself is nondual, empty, and finally unqualifiable.
And that is the problem, the ultimate mystery cannot be spoken, and no words can accurately definite It, words are at best pointers and these Self or No Self approaches ultimately POINT to the same Nondual One Taste. Whether it is being the Self of the Universe, or Shrink down to nothing, in either case, what is left is Oneness. It is known in Logic that Everything and Nothing are actually the same, For in nothing all possibilities are present and in Everything nothing but all possibilities are present.
I have listened to MANY nondual teachers and all the True Nondual teachers all agree that there is no SEPARATE Self, that is the illusion. Whether you call that realization No Self or Nothing but the Self, in either case there is only Oneness.
To Witness or Not To Witness?
"The Perfect Person employs the mind like a mirror: it accepts but does not grasp, it receives but does not keep
At face value it seems that meditation practices that emphasize witnessing embrace duality, but that is not entirely true as long as the ultimate aim is nonduality. But because nonduality is always already and nothing can be done to attain it, witnessing in meditation type of practices is helpful to understand what you are not. That is, you can watch your body, sensations, feelings and even thoughts, and by that watching you can see they are objects, and resting in the Witness or Pure Subject, you dis-identify with them. This is referred to as Neti Neti practice in Vedanta. The Witness is a clearing, an emptiness and openness that can allow you to even Witness the contracted energy of seeking or effort that is the Ego. By watching and witness this contraction, it puts you on the Edge for One Taste or Beingness to descend upon you when that contracted energy melts back into wholeness and only Nondual One Taste arises.
Some nonduality teachers claim meditation is fruitless because it is usually a practice to attain something (Enlightenment) that is apparently missing. But what you seek has never been lost, which I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY.
But there are OTHER ways to approach meditation. In Dzogchen and Nondual Buddhist traditions, they understand this conundrum and approach meditation with the mindset of Meditation IS Enlightenment. That is The practice itself is One Taste and therefore there is no illusory seeking of a future Enlightenment. But meditation with the right mindset IS HELPFUL!! Another important part of meditation is inquiry into who is meditating, who is the Meditator? Who is it that is Aware right now.
While meditation cannot bring about One Taste, it can take you to the edge and allow the mystery to descend upon you with a greater probability because there is LESS OF A VEIL LEFT TO GIVE THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION.
Yes, spontaneous Awakenings Happen, and no doubt many have realized Nondual Suchness without doing practices, BUT MANY HAVE DONE PRACTICES AS WELL! There is not just one way to get there, because all ways are already there!!
My opinion, is that being lost in thought makes it harder for the Always Already Presence of Being to Descend upon us. Meditation and mindfulness while not CAUSING IT to happen, as nothing can, because it is already, HOWEVER, being more The Empty Witness appears to me to allow this Great Mystery to unhappen. I say unhappen, because Nonduality is not a happening, it is Already. But this Gateless Gate does seem to exist and it appears the the contracted energy of desiring and seeking keeps the gateless gate closed apparently. I say apparently because it is always gateless, but apparently opens in apparent space and time when this contracted energy (aka Ego) melts and dissolves back into whole.
Be Here Now?
You can make the Now or Present moment into an object to be attained. Of course you can never Truly be here now as it is a too small a moment for your finite nervous system to see. Even the speed of light is finite which means everything you see is backwards in time. Everything you feel is limited by the speed of nerve impulses to the brain, even thoughts are never "really" here and now. Also the Now splits time into a past and a future.
With "Here" the issue is that you put a stake in the ground "Here" everything else is "There". Here is inherently dualistic as other to the "there".
However, I like the practice of Be Here Now, keeping in mind that NOW is Timeless, not a temporal blip and HERE is all inclusive and beyond space. So the Here and Now (which I capitalize) point to the idea that ALL there is is Now, and all there is is Here.
Why this is a helpful practice is that it keeps you anchored into the Immediacy of What is. One Taste is Always and Already everypresent and by practicing being Here Now, you can close the gap of separation down to zero, and all that arises is Just This, Just what is happening, Here and NOW! Not here in space, or now in time, but there is ONLY HERE, and there is ONLY NOW!
"The Perfect Person employs the mind like a mirror: it accepts but does not grasp, it receives but does not keep
At face value it seems that meditation practices that emphasize witnessing embrace duality, but that is not entirely true as long as the ultimate aim is nonduality. But because nonduality is always already and nothing can be done to attain it, witnessing in meditation type of practices is helpful to understand what you are not. That is, you can watch your body, sensations, feelings and even thoughts, and by that watching you can see they are objects, and resting in the Witness or Pure Subject, you dis-identify with them. This is referred to as Neti Neti practice in Vedanta. The Witness is a clearing, an emptiness and openness that can allow you to even Witness the contracted energy of seeking or effort that is the Ego. By watching and witness this contraction, it puts you on the Edge for One Taste or Beingness to descend upon you when that contracted energy melts back into wholeness and only Nondual One Taste arises.
Some nonduality teachers claim meditation is fruitless because it is usually a practice to attain something (Enlightenment) that is apparently missing. But what you seek has never been lost, which I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY.
But there are OTHER ways to approach meditation. In Dzogchen and Nondual Buddhist traditions, they understand this conundrum and approach meditation with the mindset of Meditation IS Enlightenment. That is The practice itself is One Taste and therefore there is no illusory seeking of a future Enlightenment. But meditation with the right mindset IS HELPFUL!! Another important part of meditation is inquiry into who is meditating, who is the Meditator? Who is it that is Aware right now.
While meditation cannot bring about One Taste, it can take you to the edge and allow the mystery to descend upon you with a greater probability because there is LESS OF A VEIL LEFT TO GIVE THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION.
Yes, spontaneous Awakenings Happen, and no doubt many have realized Nondual Suchness without doing practices, BUT MANY HAVE DONE PRACTICES AS WELL! There is not just one way to get there, because all ways are already there!!
My opinion, is that being lost in thought makes it harder for the Always Already Presence of Being to Descend upon us. Meditation and mindfulness while not CAUSING IT to happen, as nothing can, because it is already, HOWEVER, being more The Empty Witness appears to me to allow this Great Mystery to unhappen. I say unhappen, because Nonduality is not a happening, it is Already. But this Gateless Gate does seem to exist and it appears the the contracted energy of desiring and seeking keeps the gateless gate closed apparently. I say apparently because it is always gateless, but apparently opens in apparent space and time when this contracted energy (aka Ego) melts and dissolves back into whole.
Be Here Now?
You can make the Now or Present moment into an object to be attained. Of course you can never Truly be here now as it is a too small a moment for your finite nervous system to see. Even the speed of light is finite which means everything you see is backwards in time. Everything you feel is limited by the speed of nerve impulses to the brain, even thoughts are never "really" here and now. Also the Now splits time into a past and a future.
With "Here" the issue is that you put a stake in the ground "Here" everything else is "There". Here is inherently dualistic as other to the "there".
However, I like the practice of Be Here Now, keeping in mind that NOW is Timeless, not a temporal blip and HERE is all inclusive and beyond space. So the Here and Now (which I capitalize) point to the idea that ALL there is is Now, and all there is is Here.
Why this is a helpful practice is that it keeps you anchored into the Immediacy of What is. One Taste is Always and Already everypresent and by practicing being Here Now, you can close the gap of separation down to zero, and all that arises is Just This, Just what is happening, Here and NOW! Not here in space, or now in time, but there is ONLY HERE, and there is ONLY NOW!
Is Meditation Needed for Awakening?
This very question came up on the longest running inter-religious conference where teachers and masters of many traditions met yearly including Christianity, Judiasm, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American, and others including different sects within each too. They worked over many years to develop a commonly agreed upon collection of statements about Ultimate reality that they referred to as "Points of Agreement". That is points of agreement that all the varying spiritual teachers present could agree upon. One of these points was is Meditation needed for awakening?
Amongst Taoists and Zen practitioners (and several modern nondual teachers) compared to Buddhist and Hindu there is a persistence millennia long (perhaps several millennia) debate. Is meditation and spiritual practices needed for Enlightenment, awakening, Liberation, etc?
Now there is no right or wrong answer, and it is probably best to say, for many it seems helpful and for some it seems unnecessary. Personally I still practice Self Inquiry and perform japa (repetition of the name of God), but I recognize, at least intellectually and through a few glimpses, that what I seek is already This. That is to say, Enlightenment is always and already Here and Now, and by "seeking" what we already are, we keep missing It. The great nondual sages tell us, we are already Enlightenment in our basic ordinary awareness. There is nothing needed to attain or change.
BUT, I think if you have the right mindset that meditation or spiritual practices IS NOT to obtain some future reward (ie Enlightenment), that the practice ITSELF is Enlightenment here and now I DO think spiritual practices can help purify the mind, so the Glorious Self that is everpresent and always with us can be more clearly recognized. If you meditate, ask yourself during meditation Who is the meditator?
Yet, I also recognize meditation is not necessarily needed, many people have spontaneous awakenings or here the truth of non-duality and simply "get it", usually with some kind of resonance from the person delivering the message that IS Awake.
Another take on spiritual practices is to frustrate the seeker.
Peter has said: "The sole purpose of seeking is actually to frustrate the seeker, until the seeker stops in their tracks and looks around and asks the question, Who am I? What is this gaping hole I am trying to fill?" (or .... to frustrate the seeker until the seeker surrenders, gives up).
It seems hearing many stories of Awakening that before the actual TRUE experience of nonduality, the Question "Who Am I?" or some variation , spontaneously arises. Getting to the point, perhaps most of us need to play the game of being a Seeker on the Path to Enlightenment, EVEN THOUGH there is no path and there is no (future) Enlightenment.
Perhaps we just punch ourselves out, throw our hands in the air exhausted and Cry Why?
My friend Roger LaBorde attended annually what was called the Snowmass roundtable where spiritual leaders of all major traditions came together to focus on the fundamental similarities between all Religions. I feel inspired to share here 7 common grounds they could all agree upon. This list took countless hours of friendly debate to arrive at this beautiful distillation.
The Common Ground
1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality, to which they give various names (God, Allah, Tao, Brahman, Yahweh, Buddha, etc).
2. While It has many names, Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept.
3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.
4. Faith is opening, accepting, and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system.
5. The potential for human wholeness - or, in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation, transcendence, transformation, blessedness - is present in every human being.
6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices, but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service to others.
7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance and illusion, weakness and suffering.
They initially had #6 as "Daily disciplined religious practice (ie meditation) is essential for spiritual awakening. My friend Roger who himself had a SPONTANEOUS awakening with not disciplined practice was integral in altering this point, though it is not 100% what he would have liked to see. What he emphasized was people can and do have spontaneous awakenings like he did. One example that comes to mind is Eckhart Tolle, but there are many others that have an Awakening with no disciplined daily practice. In fact in my several conversations with Roger, he made it clear that meditation and spiritual practices may actually be more of a hindrance than a help. Here is how he described it:
"The way I look at this thing about 'daily disciplined meditative practice" goes like this: If you have somebody out on the streets breaking windows and mugging people, getting into all kinds of trouble, and somebody grabs them by the scruff of the neck, pulls them into a gym, and puts boxing gloves on them they can beat up on somebody who wants teh same, and it's controlled aggression. But at some point, they tire of getting beating and getting beaten and say, 'Hey, I don't want to do this anymore.' And this is how I view meditation; if keeps you busy till you decide to 'wake up', and the waking up happens in a Spontaneous Moment; it can happen walking your dog, making love, playing music, or even with a butterfly on your nose!"
He asked the group if they knew of people having spontaneous awakenings, and they all agreed and modified their statement to "Meditation Practice is Helpful, but not essential for spiritual awakening."
This very question came up on the longest running inter-religious conference where teachers and masters of many traditions met yearly including Christianity, Judiasm, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American, and others including different sects within each too. They worked over many years to develop a commonly agreed upon collection of statements about Ultimate reality that they referred to as "Points of Agreement". That is points of agreement that all the varying spiritual teachers present could agree upon. One of these points was is Meditation needed for awakening?
Amongst Taoists and Zen practitioners (and several modern nondual teachers) compared to Buddhist and Hindu there is a persistence millennia long (perhaps several millennia) debate. Is meditation and spiritual practices needed for Enlightenment, awakening, Liberation, etc?
Now there is no right or wrong answer, and it is probably best to say, for many it seems helpful and for some it seems unnecessary. Personally I still practice Self Inquiry and perform japa (repetition of the name of God), but I recognize, at least intellectually and through a few glimpses, that what I seek is already This. That is to say, Enlightenment is always and already Here and Now, and by "seeking" what we already are, we keep missing It. The great nondual sages tell us, we are already Enlightenment in our basic ordinary awareness. There is nothing needed to attain or change.
BUT, I think if you have the right mindset that meditation or spiritual practices IS NOT to obtain some future reward (ie Enlightenment), that the practice ITSELF is Enlightenment here and now I DO think spiritual practices can help purify the mind, so the Glorious Self that is everpresent and always with us can be more clearly recognized. If you meditate, ask yourself during meditation Who is the meditator?
Yet, I also recognize meditation is not necessarily needed, many people have spontaneous awakenings or here the truth of non-duality and simply "get it", usually with some kind of resonance from the person delivering the message that IS Awake.
Another take on spiritual practices is to frustrate the seeker.
Peter has said: "The sole purpose of seeking is actually to frustrate the seeker, until the seeker stops in their tracks and looks around and asks the question, Who am I? What is this gaping hole I am trying to fill?" (or .... to frustrate the seeker until the seeker surrenders, gives up).
It seems hearing many stories of Awakening that before the actual TRUE experience of nonduality, the Question "Who Am I?" or some variation , spontaneously arises. Getting to the point, perhaps most of us need to play the game of being a Seeker on the Path to Enlightenment, EVEN THOUGH there is no path and there is no (future) Enlightenment.
Perhaps we just punch ourselves out, throw our hands in the air exhausted and Cry Why?
My friend Roger LaBorde attended annually what was called the Snowmass roundtable where spiritual leaders of all major traditions came together to focus on the fundamental similarities between all Religions. I feel inspired to share here 7 common grounds they could all agree upon. This list took countless hours of friendly debate to arrive at this beautiful distillation.
The Common Ground
1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality, to which they give various names (God, Allah, Tao, Brahman, Yahweh, Buddha, etc).
2. While It has many names, Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept.
3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.
4. Faith is opening, accepting, and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system.
5. The potential for human wholeness - or, in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation, transcendence, transformation, blessedness - is present in every human being.
6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices, but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service to others.
7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance and illusion, weakness and suffering.
They initially had #6 as "Daily disciplined religious practice (ie meditation) is essential for spiritual awakening. My friend Roger who himself had a SPONTANEOUS awakening with not disciplined practice was integral in altering this point, though it is not 100% what he would have liked to see. What he emphasized was people can and do have spontaneous awakenings like he did. One example that comes to mind is Eckhart Tolle, but there are many others that have an Awakening with no disciplined daily practice. In fact in my several conversations with Roger, he made it clear that meditation and spiritual practices may actually be more of a hindrance than a help. Here is how he described it:
"The way I look at this thing about 'daily disciplined meditative practice" goes like this: If you have somebody out on the streets breaking windows and mugging people, getting into all kinds of trouble, and somebody grabs them by the scruff of the neck, pulls them into a gym, and puts boxing gloves on them they can beat up on somebody who wants teh same, and it's controlled aggression. But at some point, they tire of getting beating and getting beaten and say, 'Hey, I don't want to do this anymore.' And this is how I view meditation; if keeps you busy till you decide to 'wake up', and the waking up happens in a Spontaneous Moment; it can happen walking your dog, making love, playing music, or even with a butterfly on your nose!"
He asked the group if they knew of people having spontaneous awakenings, and they all agreed and modified their statement to "Meditation Practice is Helpful, but not essential for spiritual awakening."
Someone once Asked Mother Meera, when does Enlightenment happen?
She replied, when one is full of both spiritual and material experience. Seeking Success and Enlightenment both are wonderfully hopeless and when we punch ourselves out and grow tired of each all the remains is One Taste and it is recognized upon tasting the sweetness of Just This, that it has been always present in the Grand Game of Seeking. For why else would we be here? We are here to taste both energy contraction and its release as waves of the great ocean of sweetness catch and release. God hides himself in every wave but eventually each wave of contraction inevitably breaks upon the shores of Liberation, hitting the dry land, the wave realizes the wonderful wetness it has been all along, and from there it can evaporate into infinite space or slide back into the ocean and becoming one with all wetness. Infinite freedom rains and the universe celebrates!
She replied, when one is full of both spiritual and material experience. Seeking Success and Enlightenment both are wonderfully hopeless and when we punch ourselves out and grow tired of each all the remains is One Taste and it is recognized upon tasting the sweetness of Just This, that it has been always present in the Grand Game of Seeking. For why else would we be here? We are here to taste both energy contraction and its release as waves of the great ocean of sweetness catch and release. God hides himself in every wave but eventually each wave of contraction inevitably breaks upon the shores of Liberation, hitting the dry land, the wave realizes the wonderful wetness it has been all along, and from there it can evaporate into infinite space or slide back into the ocean and becoming one with all wetness. Infinite freedom rains and the universe celebrates!
Liberation/Enlightenment/Moksha/Satori - Primal Glance - One Taste - Just This
1. This is the death of Me, Death of the I while the body is still alive.
2. The contracted energy uncoils, the knots are undone, the bodymind relaxes and all that is left is just what arises, just what is happening. No more Subject and Object, inside and out and is recognized there never was, it was all a dream.
3. Recognition of THIS being radical wholeness, everything is in everything and there is nothing to seek. How can you seek anything when you have everything?
4. It is the Immediacy of Just What is, Just This, Just what is happening which is Everything and Nothing, Absolute Freedom (no causality)
4. Can happen spontaneously for no reason, through resonance or pointing out instructions from a non-dual teacher.
5. This Game, the Great Search is undone in that Primal Glance, and all that remains is Emptiness itself, perfectly obvious in the singing of a Robin on a bright Spring Dawn.
1. This is the death of Me, Death of the I while the body is still alive.
2. The contracted energy uncoils, the knots are undone, the bodymind relaxes and all that is left is just what arises, just what is happening. No more Subject and Object, inside and out and is recognized there never was, it was all a dream.
3. Recognition of THIS being radical wholeness, everything is in everything and there is nothing to seek. How can you seek anything when you have everything?
4. It is the Immediacy of Just What is, Just This, Just what is happening which is Everything and Nothing, Absolute Freedom (no causality)
4. Can happen spontaneously for no reason, through resonance or pointing out instructions from a non-dual teacher.
5. This Game, the Great Search is undone in that Primal Glance, and all that remains is Emptiness itself, perfectly obvious in the singing of a Robin on a bright Spring Dawn.
Pay Attention
Simple Notice
Silent and soft Awareness you always have right now
Inquire, first find out what you are not
Purity, Integrity, Humility, Devotion, etc.
Incredibly Subtle, So you need to purify Body-Mind-Energy
Awareness of Contracted Energy
Emotional Release, Rebirthing Etc... Contracted Energy can be localized in traumas / etc.
Meditation
Vedanta / Dzogchen Exercises (Meditating on Non-Dual Pointers)
Headless Exercises
Be Here Now
Simple Notice
Silent and soft Awareness you always have right now
Inquire, first find out what you are not
Purity, Integrity, Humility, Devotion, etc.
Incredibly Subtle, So you need to purify Body-Mind-Energy
Awareness of Contracted Energy
Emotional Release, Rebirthing Etc... Contracted Energy can be localized in traumas / etc.
Meditation
Vedanta / Dzogchen Exercises (Meditating on Non-Dual Pointers)
Headless Exercises
Be Here Now